The Black Cat & the White Knight
by TheWindWakersDream
Summary: After long hard study in Beacon's library, Jaune has found himself to be a bit of a bibliophile and after Blake's secret is revealed, the two find themselves spending more and more time together. How will their new found friendship grow as the two bookworms of the group begin to find out more about each other?


First Contact

"Blake is a Faunus?" Jaune asked incredulously. "That ribbon hides cat ears?" He also inquired, unable to comprehend the news that Weiss had told him.

She nodded in reply, unsure of how JNPR would react to the delicate information. "So?" Jaune asked as the weight of the matter did **not** dawn on him.

"What does it matter?" The rest of his team looked surprised at his question. "Who cares if she's a Faunus? Doesn't make her any less of a person than the rest of us."

Weiss was slightly surprised by what Jaune said. He always came across as a brute to her, but she figured he could at least be **trusted **with this information. "I didn't think you'd say something like that."

The rest of team JNPR agreed with their leader one hundred percent and swore to keep the fact a secret to the rest of Beacon.

They all left RWBY's dorm to return to their own while Weiss stayed behind. Ruby and Yang had left earlier to get some extra training in, while Blake...

"I'm as surprised as you are, Blake." Weiss called out to thin air. "I can't believe he was so unfazed by it..." Blake replied as she left her hiding spot in the shadows.

Weiss thought for a moment. "Perhaps he already knew? He was fairly calm about it." Blake shook her head. "There's no way. None of my own team knew about it, there's not a chance someone who's just a friend to the team could figure it out."

Weiss smiled softly towards her cat eared friend. "Then I guess he just doesn't care." As Weiss finished her sentence, Yang and Ruby returned from their sparring match.

"Hey Ice Queen, did you tell Vomit Boy and his team?" Weiss nodded in reply. "And how did it go?" Ruby asked.

"He couldn't have cared less." Blake spoke up. As the rest of her team turned to look at her, they had to do a double take in shock.

Blake was smiling a true, genuine smile.

* * *

"You seem pretty unfazed by this Jaune." Ren spoke as he noticed his leader sit down to read a story book.

"Why would I be fazed?" He asked. "I mean yeah, I'm a little miffed that she kept such a big secret from her friends for so long, but besides that, I've got no reason to be angry or anything." Jaune replied as he turned the next page in his book.

"Faunus are people too, Ren. I mean, you all accepted Velvet into the group pretty easily, didn't you. What's the difference with Blake?"

Ren tried to think of a reply but came up dry. "I suppose you're right Jaune. There is no difference." Jaune nodded and closed his book while jumping off his bed.

"Of course I'm right Ren, I'm me. Now then, I've finished this book so I'm gonna go to the library and find another. Wanna come?"

Ren contemplated it for a moment but then remembered that he needed to study with Nora. "Not this time I'm afraid."

Jaune shrugged his shoulders and left without another word. As he wandered through the halls of Beacon with his book 'The Tales Grimm' under his arms, Jaune couldn't ignore the feeling that he was being followed.

'Better act like nothing's wrong for now.' Jaune pretended to shrug off the thought as he continued his trek to the library.

The entire time he could feel the presence getting closer. He was just about to reach for the door handle when he suddenly heard something.

"Hello Jaune." A woman called out to him, he already knew who it was. No one else bothers sneaking up on people.

"Hey Blake, what's up?" Jaune replied as he turned the knob on the door and entered the library with Blake in tow.

"I just came here to grab another book to read. What about you?" She asked as Jaune put his book into the 'returns' pile.

"Same. But if that's true, why were you following me?" Blake froze in place as Jaune turned to her with a smile.

"I'd recognize your aura anywhere Blake, it wasn't that hard to figure out who was behind me." Jaune spoke coolly as he began to wander around the rows of bookshelves in search of a new tome to take his interest.

Blake did not fail to notice Jaune's sudden boost in intellect. He studies ten times as much as the brightest student in Beacon and it was beginning to show.

"I'll have to work on my stealth then..." Jaune chuckled as he began to look around the room. Noticing that no one was around, he felt it safe to talk.

"So Weiss told me about the..." He pointed to the top of his head. "You know."

Blake sighed and cast her eyes downward. "Yeah, Ruby felt that you and your team should know." Jaune nodded, but frowned at Blake's solemn look.

"Hey, cheer up; it's not like any of us care." She perked up at this and looked him in the eye, trying to find some hint of a lie.

There was none.

"What does it matter anyway? Who cares if you're a F..." He eyed the room again. "Fun loving person."

Blake couldn't help but smile again, it shocked Jaune to see her like this, but he was glad to have cheered her up nonetheless.

"Wow." He said. "You have a beautiful smile..." Blake blushed immediately. Jaune did as well after realizing what he said.

"Uhh, I mean, uhm..." His eyes darted back and forth in search of any words to help him. "Sorry."

Blake, while completely avoiding eye contact, shook her head. "No it's alright, nothing wrong with a complement to a friend."

Jaune nodded hastily. "Right, well. I better get going. I left Ren alone with Nora and that rarely ends well. Plus I still need to finish that assignment so I'm gonna head off now."

Jaune was gone before Blake could even formulate a reply. She felt hollow now that he was gone, empty, void of life.

Blake decided to pass it off as hormones and left for her own room. She now knew that Jaune really was just that nice.

He also likes books. 'I wonder if he likes ninja's too... I could probably show him how well the two combine.'

With Ninja's of Love firmly planted in her mind, Blake left the library. She would have grabbed a book, but she's read them all already.

The ones in this library at least.

* * *

That next morning, teams RWBY and JNPR were sitting at the usual table, enjoying some breakfast before classes.

"And so I says to him, I says: Aura? More like **bore-a**!" The silence that followed Yang's morning joke was deafening and painful to be a part of.

"Eh? Eh? Am I right guys? He knows! He knows, alright. I'll show myself out." Her follow up earned her at least a few chuckles, but she wasn't going to be picky. A laugh's a laugh.

"So Jaune, what do you have planned for today?" Blake asked over the murmur of the table. "I was going to go and hit the Training Grounds after class. Care to join me?"

Jaune couldn't tell why, but he felt as if hanging out with Blake would reward him in some way. Perhaps it was just seeing her smile, he had to admit: it was like a rare delicacy.

"I'd love to, how about we meet up at the library before we head out?" Jaune nodded. "Sounds good." The two bookworms smiled to each other and resumed eating their breakfast.

Their little interaction did not go unnoticed by their gossipy friend though, but she decided to leave it for now. 'Perhaps when one of them is alone…'

The bell soon rang, signalling the beginning of the day and the separation of the group.

Jaune and Blake had History class together and despite their desire to sit with each other, they both had unspoken seats in that class. So Blake took her rightful spot next to Pyrrha, while Jaune sat at the front of the room.

Since he had befriended them and worked out their differences, the two seats beside Jaune had been taken up by Cardin Winchester and Velvet Scarlatina.

Blake was alright with Cardin since he stopped being such a Faunus hating, bigot. Velvet was fine too, the rabbit herself didn't know it but Blake respected her greatly.

She's one of the very few Faunus at Beacon and she wasn't afraid to show that fact. Something Blake couldn't exactly do herself.

The class passed by as usual, Jaune played "Spot the Oobleck" with Velvet and Cardin while Blake and Pyrrha actually **tried **to focus on class.

Jaune didn't entirely need to pay attention seeing as he had already learnt everything the teacher was currently talking about, but Cardin and Velvet were flunking history because of the blonde.

His game was just too damn fun.

The bell for luncheon eventually rang and the students all filled out of the room.

Jaune met up with Blake and Pyrrha outside as they headed off towards the cafeteria. He found himself staring at the black bow on her head the whole way through though.

'I wonder what they look like…' Jaune thought as he caught himself raising his hand to try and reach her ears and immediately put it back down. 'Fool! You can't blow her cover like that! What if her ears are sensitive and she makes a sound when you touch them?'

He let his mind wonder after that. 'I wonder what she'd sound like, would it be the cliché female yelp. Or something more akin to a 'nya'?'

Then it hit him. 'What if she purrs? I swear to God if I catch her meowing or purring, ever: I'm going to lose it.'

As they all entered the cafeteria, Jaune found himself staring at her ears yet again. 'When we're alone, I'll get a feel in when we're alone.'

Steeling his resolve, Jaune began to strategize ways in which he can get a quick touch of her ears in while he gathered his food and sat at the table.

He never managed to notice Blake looking at him with concern written on her face. "Jaune, are you alright? You've been a little quiet."

As Jaune looked up, he had to rewire his brain to let him think because Blake was leaning over the table and her golden eyes were directly in his face. 'Does she wear eyeliner? Kind of unnecessary if you ask me.'

"Yeah sorry, I was just thinking a bit is all." Blake wasn't satisfied with that though. "Thinking about what?" Jaune was about to reply, but someone beat him to it.

"Probably you Blakey." Yang said as she draped an arm over her partners shoulder.

"W-what? I would never!" 'How is she so **damn **perceptive?!'

The glint in Yang's eyes seemed to brighten as she turned her attention to the blonde. "Yeah right, you were just staring into her eyes for a lot longer than any normal person would."

Jaune seemed to get defensive about this. "So what? Her eyes are beautiful, of course I'd look at them." When he heard Yang snickering Jaune looked around the table to see everyone staring at him.

He then rethought what he said and face palmed himself. "What I meant to say is-"

"Yang, I think that's enough for now, don't you?" Blake had interrupted him as she grabbed Yang's hand and removed it from her shoulder.

Yang was positively flabbergasted. "I, uhh. Yes?" Blake nodded. "Good, now I think the bell will be going shortly so how about we get to class early?" Yang nodded again, having never seen Blake act this way and not sure how to respond.

The two girls stood and left for their next class. As they left, Jaune managed to catch a glimpse of Blake giving a quick wink in his direction.

'Seems someone's looking out for me…' He thought as they left the cafeteria. Sadly, there was one other thing Jaune forgot to take into account.

"So Blake's eyes are beautiful are they?" Ruby asked as the rest of the table snickered.

'God damnit Ruby.'

* * *

Classes for the day had finally finished and Jaune now sat in the library waiting for Blake to arrive. The building was entirely empty, although Jaune knew this to be standard procedure.

In a school designed to make warriors, most students would prefer to train than to read, a fact that always made Jaune slightly upset.

He wasn't complaining though, less people meant a quieter library and that was something he would always be thankful for.

Minutes passed as Jaune sat in waiting and Blake finally emerged through the entrance. "Took you long enough!" Jaune called out in jest as she walked towards him.

"I got held up by Yang after class, she was just spouting nonsense though so I left as quickly as I could." Jaune nodded in understanding, fully aware of Yang's 'nonsense'.

"Fair enough, shall we head out then?" Blake nodded and the two set off.

As Jaune and Blake left the library they were assaulted with the sight of the main tower that dominated Beacon. They had to pull themselves together after seeing it; the building always left them in awe every time they came across it.

It was a short walk to the Training Grounds from the library and the duo arrived in a mere two minutes. As they entered, they found the halls were partially empty.

"That's weird." Jaune said as he looked around the building. "Where is everyone?"

"Probably in their rooms studying, the end of term tests are coming up and you don't want a bad grade on those." Jaune blinked in surprise.

"But those tests are always easy; you can ace it by just repeating what the teacher says in class." Blake smiled at him as he gave her a confused look.

"Do you think most students actually **listen **in class?" Jaune chuckled at her joke as they entered through one of the doors to an arena.

"I suppose not. Oh well, more arenas for us then." Blake smiled at the blonde as she withdrew Gambol Shroud from her back; Jaune also unsheathed Crocea Mors and extended his sheilth to prepare.

The moment they entered their spot on the arena floor, they lunged.

* * *

Ruby decided to get some extra studying in after classes in her room. That is to say, Weiss forced her to get some extra studying in back in their room.

As she sat atop her death trap of a bunk bed, Ruby noticed the door open as Yang entered. "Yang, there you are. Where were you? We're supposed to be studying; you can't leave me to this torture alone!"

Yang chuckled as she gathered her materials for study and sat atop her own bunk. "I was talking to Blake is all, asking her a few questions."

Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Like what?" Yang smirked as she opened one of her text books. "Stuff about Vomit Boy."

Ruby tilted her head further to the side as the answer only raised more questions. "Why were you asking her stuff about Jaune?"

Looking up from her book Yang gave Ruby a white toothed smile. "Because they totally like each other." If Ruby could tilt her head any further it would snap off.

"They do? I didn't see anything like that." Yang laughed again as she returned to her work. "I guess you're just too young for that stuff, the signs were obvious."

Ruby was still greatly confused. "But they've barely even-"

"**Enough!**" Weiss screamed as she glared at the sisters. "You two need to be working, I will not be a part of a team with failing grades!"

Ruby gave a small 'meeping' noise as she quickly looked back at her book while Yang only laughed once more. "Relax Ice Queen, we'll be fine. I've got everything under control."

As Weiss 'harrumphed' and turned back to her own book, she missed the dangerous glint in Yang's eye as she thought of many different plans for the young knight and the cat.

'In more ways than one…'


End file.
